P. Mattar – Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (2nd Edition)

Автор: P. Mattar
Название книги: Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (2nd Edition)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: История Азии и Африки
Страницы: 2951
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

With nearly 600 new entries and 1,000 updates, the second edition of this authoritative resource reflects the far-reaching changes the Middle East has undergone in recent years, making the work more relevant and more necessary than ever before. The set covers the modern history of the Middle East and North Africa, with major sections on Colonialism and Imperialism, the World Wars, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the United Nations involvement in the region. Each country in the region is reviewed, detailing its population, economy and government. With 3,000 nonpartisan articles written by specialists in anthropology, history, political science, religion and social sciences, this four-volume set is an indispensable tool.

The purpose of this new edition of the encyclopedia
is to respond to the growing need for an upto-
date, comprehensive compendium of knowledge
about the Middle East and North Africa, from 1800
to the present. Indeed, much has changed in the
Middle East since the first edition was published in
1996. The then leaders of Jordan, Morocco, and
Syria have died and their sons have come to power.
There have been two new prime ministers in Israel.
Israeli–Palestinian negotiations failed at the Camp
David summit in 2000 and were followed by the al-
Aqsa Intifada. The events of 11 September 2001
triggered the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan
and Iraq, which resulted in the downfall of the Taliban
and Saddam Hussein, and in the dispersion of
Osama bin Ladin’s al-Qaida.
The encyclopedia is as timely as ever. During
the United States–Iranian crisis in 1979, a Washington
Post editor, Meg Greenfield, pointed out in her
26 March Newsweek column (p. 116) that there are
two things to say about American involvement in the
Middle East: “One is that no part of the world is
more important to our well being at the moment—
and probably for the foreseeable future. The other
is that no part of the world is more hopelessly and
systematically and stubbornly misunderstood by us.”
In the wake of the tragedy of September 11, and the
misunderstanding and hostility it generated towards
Islam and the Muslim world among some groups,
primarily in the United States, Greenfield’s comment
is as relevant and prescient now as it was then.
Coverage
This encyclopedia seeks to summarize and organize
the most significant factual and analytical knowledge
available on the subject and to present it in a readable
style that is accessible to high school students,
college students, and general readers. The fourvolume
encyclopedia contains one million words in
some 3,000 entries written by approximately 400
scholars of diverse backgrounds and specialization.
Entries range in length from 200 to 5,000 words,
and about a third of them are biographies. One half
of the 3,000 entries are new or have been partly or
substantially updated. The revised articles are
signed by the original authors, with the new authors’ names preceded by the phrase “Updated by.” Such
entries include chronological data or other information
that did not appear in the first edition.
A number of techniques have been employed to
make the work as “user friendly” as possible. The
articles are alphabetically ordered, although the alprefix
(which is the equivalent of the English word
the) in some words should be disregarded. For example,
al-Qaida would be found under Q, not A.
Each entry is introduced by a brief summary. Articles
are cross-referenced to related entries in two
ways. First, at the end of most entries, the reader is
guided to a list of other, related articles. Second,
throughout the work, alternative words or phrases
for subjects are listed as “blind entries” within the
alphabetical sequence, and are followed by directions
that will send the reader to the appropriate essay.
For example, a researcher seeking information
on census data would encounter the following:
“Census: See Population.”
A selected bibliography follows the longer essays.
These bibliographies direct the reader to additional
works in English that the interested reader
might profitably consult for further information on
the topic. The appendices include a glossary, genealogies,
a list of the contributors to the encyclopedia,
a list of all the entries, and a conceptual index
of some 185 pages, one of the most thorough and
useful in any work of this kind. Maps accompany
country articles, and hundreds of newly acquired
photographs of ordinary people, leaders, sites, and
events enrich the text.
The articles cover a wide variety of topics in the
fields of politics, history, economics, religion, sociology,
geography, literature, fine arts, and many
others. They also review twenty-three countries—all
but one (Israel) predominantly Muslim. Coverage
extends from Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey to the
Fertile Crescent (including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,
Israel, Palestinian territories, and Egypt) and to
North African states such as Libya, Algeria, and Morocco.
While each country is presented in depth, the
Editorial Board decided that Western readers are
likely to require more information on some countries
than on others because of their historic significance
or contemporary role in the region. For
example, the entries covering Israel, Egypt, Iran,
Turkey (including the Ottoman Empire), Iraq, historic
Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and
the countries of North Africa have been allocated
longer and more entries, whereas Cyprus and Mauritania
have been given less space in these volumes.
Besides allowing us to update the factual data
of the original edition, revising the encyclopedia
has provided the opportunity to include new articles
on topics that were previously neglected or
underrepresented. For example, we have added approximately
200 biographies of women and their
organizations, and a number of long articles on
gender, such as gender and education, law, politics,
and economy. In addition, we have added dozens of
profiles of Islamic scholars, organizations, theologians,
and activists that had been overlooked in the
first edition.
This edition of the encyclopedia has also squarely
addressed certain sensitive topics and terms, such as
terrorism. This edition calls “terrorism” by its
name, not just “military action,” and the ritual sexual
maiming of women is called “female genital mutilation,”
rather than employing the coldly clinical
term, “circumcision.” Sensitive topics, such as the
war in Iraq (2003) and the Palestinian al-Nakba
(“the disaster”), are explained and discussed openly,
as are the Armenian genocide and anti-Semitism in
the Arab world.
As editor, I have tried neither to reconcile inconsistencies
nor to arbitrate between differing interpretations
that have been offered by my colleagues,
the contributors to this work. The reader will find
a variety of quantitative references and data sets—
populations, casualties, refugees—invoked in support
of the arguments presented in each article. At
times, the interpretations of events, treaties, concepts,
and personalities offered by individual contributing
authors diverge from or even conflict with
one another. This diversity of voices and interpretations
not only reflects the state of modern Middle
Eastern scholarship, it enriches it and helps to
stimulate further research.
I have tried to follow two simple guidelines in
selecting the scholars who would write the entries.
First, I recognized that a reference work is a forum
for knowledge based on consensus, not a forum for
new ideas and theories, for which there are many
journals. Of course, a new emerging consensus must be reflected in any reference work, and this
edition of the encyclopedia provides as wide a view
of the field as is supported by rigorous scholarship.
Second, I have favored scholars who base their research
and analysis on primary material and original
languages, and who have a proven record of
adhering to high scholarly standards. I have also favored
non-partisan scholars who were critical yet
empathetic with the people about whom they were
writing.
However, some topics are difficult to treat in a
non-partisan way, even by scholars. For instance,
the encyclopedia includes a considerable amount of
coverage on the Palestine problem and Arab–Israeli
conflict. In my view, many scholars on these topics
are overwhelmed by ideology and emotion, which
leads them, at times, to offer the (respective) national
narratives rather than the historical record.
Although this tendency began to change in the late
1980s, when mainly Israeli historians began to challenge
the national myths and distortions present in
the history of the conflict, it is nonetheless unavoidable
in much Middle Eastern scholarship, even today.
Though comprehensive, this encyclopedia cannot
be considered complete, nor is it immune from
errors. We welcome readers to send their comments
and corrections to Macmillan, for possible use in
future editions. Of course, as with all reference
works, this encyclopedia should be used as a gateway
to knowledge that is found in more detailed
books, such as those suggested in the bibliographies
that accompany the articles.
Transliteration
The Editorial Board has preferred precision and
consistency in the representation of non-English
terms, and has generally tried to follow the modified
system of the International Journal of Middle East Studies
and Encyclopedia Judaica. However, we have chosen
not to apply these systems universally, for a number
of reasons. Many place-names and historical
personalities are familiar to the Western reader by
their English or French forms rather than by the
more technically correct transliteration of their
Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, or Persian names. Thus,
we have used the familiar English form, Beirut, rather
than the more correct transliteration of Bayrut. Similarly,
we have chosen to use the more familiar
Boumedienne to refer to the Algerian leader more
properly called Abu Midyan. Further complicating the
transliteration problem is the fact that people from
the region often ignore generally accepted practices
in spelling the names of places, persons, and things.
In such cases we have often adopted local usage.
When the correct spelling is not known, we have
spelled it according to the generally accepted standard.
Where possible, we have provided alternative
spellings, either within individual essays or as blind
entries.
We have, thus, favored ease of use over scholarly
consistency in our presentation of transliterated
words, because this work is for the general
reader rather than for the specialist. This editorial
choice is also evident in our treatment of diacritical
marks in Arabic words. Dots under consonants
and lines over vowels (macrons) have not been used,
because they mean little to anyone not familiar with
Arabic. For the same reason, we have excluded the
“ayn” (pronounced in the back of the throat) and
“hamza” (a glottal stop) symbols from the beginning
and end of words, although we have generally retained
these two marks in the middle of words in
order to distinguish clearly between the letters on
either side of the symbols.